Tag Archives: tasting menu

Busting out of poker tournaments sucks. Tasting menus make things suck less. So after I lost some money I decided to go with a friend to dinner at Emeril’s more traditional restaurant Table 10. The Emeril in front of this one looks fresh out of his hit 90’s tv show instead of the one being threatened beside Delmonico.

Look at that smug immortal bastard.

The ambiance of the restaurant is very relaxed, almost like a country club. It’s a place you could have a business dinner or a place to go after a show. It’s also a place they might be hiding Emeril’s fountain of youth because you DAMN WELL KNOW HE DOESN’T LOOK THAT GOOD NOW.

This was a true tasting menu where you get a few limited choices on what to order and they bring you small enough portions that you don’t overload by the time the meal is done. Between the two of us, my friend and I ordered completely different items and shared because if you’re going to taste a menu, taste the whole menu.

First course, I ordered a Caesar and he ordered the Gumbo. The Caesar was a weird mix between being nontraditional and traditional and I didn’t enjoy how it was mostly just one big piece of lettuce. A butter knife doesn’t cut this leaf particularly well and the dressing wasn’t well incorporated. I liked the crouton with the anchovy but probably would’ve preferred it if it were actually incorporated together the way a real Caesar is.

You don’t win friends with salad.

The Gumbo was Emeril’s classic that we had at Delmonico. It’s very good, probably less chunky than I would like with no real big pieces of meat to speak of. But the broth is extremely tasty and no complaints on flavor of the roux.

Gumbo is everyone’s friend.

For the second course, I was very excited to order what they call the Mushroom “Vol au Vent” which is generally a pastry stuffed with meat. The mushroom was very hearty and I didn’t really miss the meat at all (“LIAR!”). The pastry was seriously unimpressive though and tasted like it had been sitting out for a long time, as if they made them all ahead of time and it had started to grow stale. Instead of collapsing and being warm in the middle, they were a bit chewy and not in the good way. Also, if you’re going to put microgreens on something, please actually put it on the food instead of leaving us to guess if we are supposed to eat it or not.

Hahaha no but seriously why aren’t these better.

My friend Kevin spotted the candied bacon extremely fast and I was excited to see what they did with it. I’m happy to report they actually just used some extremely high quality ingredients and let it shine. We got 3 huge pieces of bacon steak, essentially, served with a very high quality maple syrup that makes me wish even more that I was born Canadian. Definitely one of the best things we tried and I would gladly come back just for this. Actually, for the price you can order it off the regular menu this might be a new thing for me.

[BACON JOKE #4752] [/BACON JOKE]For the mains, I decided to order the chicken with gnocchi and gravy and Kevin went for the arctic char with polenta.

It might have been the best chicken dish I have ever had in a restaurant. Most places put 0 effort into their chicken because they know only super boring people order it, but they certainly poured their heart out onto this plate. The gnocchi were perfectly made (though I am surprised to see it in such a restaurant because I don’t think they’re particularly Cajun) and the gravy was luscious. The chicken had a super thick piece of crispy skin on top and the meat was surprisingly not overcooked. I stay away from poultry for the most part because most places overcook it just to be on the safe side but this chicken was very moist and they avoided turning it into that chalky texture you get at grandma’s house during Thanksgiving. A clear star.

This dish is the comic relief in a buddy cop movie.

Arctic char is a cool fish and very similar to salmon. It’s sustainable which is pretty awesome and something I can give them extra points for, but this is one of the most bizarre dishes I’ve had in recent history. A tiny piece of fish sitting in a very rich polenta surrounded by olives. The olive aroma was in pretty much everything which for this particular dish was a complete turnoff. Granted, I’m not a fan of just popping olives like candy anyway but I don’t see what they were going for here exactly. The fish was well cooked and had crispy skin and the polenta was rich and tasty but I couldn’t take a single bite without tasting olive. Also, that fish portion is seriously small. It was probably 1/6 the amount of meat if not less than the chicken on the other plate and is significantly less satisfying.

They call it sustainable but this is ridiculous.

Kevin ordered green beans. Here’s a picture.

MORE LIKE HAS-BEENS HAHAHA I’LL SHOW MYSELF OUT

Emeril is apparently quite known for his Banana Creme Pie and I am a fan of pretentious french spelling of the word ‘cream.’ so I figured we had to pick that one. I’m also a big fan of carrot cake and was very happy to find that it was the best carrot cake I’ve had in recent memory. It came with candied pecans that offered a very nice crunch to go with the soft and moist cake which is always a pleasure to find in something that you expect isn’t going to have much texture contrast. The banana cream pie was very solid but to be honest I think it suffered from having very large banana slices in it which offered a texture contrast that just wasn’t nearly as pleasure to experience. The caramel on top was great though and I certainly wouldn’t complain about having this served to me at the end of any nice meal. Both slices were huge though and I didn’t technically finish either one (Don’t believe Kevin, he’s a liar.)

And for dessert: diabetes. May I interest you in some coffee or insulin?

There are a lot of great tasting menus around town that may run you well over $100 but tonight we enjoyed all the above dishes for the very fair price of $65 each after tax/tip. If you’re ever at the Palazzo and want a meal that isn’t going to break the bank this is likely one of the better options. I should bust out of poker tournaments more often.